"SIGNS OF THE TIMES!"
GP 1612
Comp. 4/83
--Proof that we are living in the Last Days!
1. GOD'S WORD GIVES US HUNDREDS OF "SIGNS OF THE TIMES," signs & signals of the Last Days, of the Endtime, signs that we are to look out for & expect, so that we will know when we are near the End & how near the End & exactly what is going to happen at the End! We are now going to examine just a few of these outstanding, literal, specific, Biblical predictions & prophecies regarding conditions & events during the final Last Days of man's current rule on Earth, as foreseen by God's prophets thousands of years ago!:
2. IN REPLY TO HIS DISCIPLES' QUESTION, "WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING & OF THE END OF THE WORLD?" (Mat.24:3), Jesus said, "Ye shall hear of wars & rumours of wars: See that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the End is not yet.--For nation shall rise against nation, & kingdom against kingdom: & there shall be famines, & pestilences, & earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows!" (Mt.24:6-8) Although we've had these things for Millenniums & they're only the "beginning of sorrows," it's interesting to note how the scale, severity & frequency of all of these have increased:
3. "WARS & RUMOURS OF WARS ...": Although the World had never been completely free from war prior to 1914, until then war had never been universal. But from 1914 to 1918, with World War I, total war was waged, & then again from 1939-1945 with World War II. In the latter, only 12 small nations of the Earth were not actually or technically involved, & altogether 93 million people served in the Armed Forces of both sides! At the 21st Session of the International Red Cross in 1969, it was reported that more than 90 million people have been killed in wars since the 20th Century began, over 2 trillion dollars have been spent on arms & over 130 conflicts on five continents have been waged!
4. "FAMINES & PESTILENCES ...": The World Health Organisation estimates that about one-third of the World is well-fed, one-third is under-fed & one-third is starving! Four million people die each year of starvation, 70% of the World's children under six years old are undernourished, & 30 persons die of starvation every minute! The WHO also issued the shocking prediction that up to one billion people may die from famine during the 1980's!
5. "EARTHQUAKES IN DIVERS PLACES ...": The World Almanac tells us that there were only six earthquakes of major strength between 1800-1896. But in each decade from 1897 until 1947 there were either two or three, in the decade from 1947-1956 there were seven, & from 1957-1966 there were 17. Since 1975 there have been over 35 significant earthquakes! In the last five years of the 1970s, more people were killed by earthquakes than in the entire 75 years preceding! In fact, 25 of the 49 largest earthquakes in recorded history occurred from 1960-1980, within only two decades! The 1970's experienced the largest increase in the number of killer quakes ever known. In fact, the dramatic increase of quakes in 1976 led many scientists to predict that we are entering a new period of great seismic disturbances.
6. TO CONTINUE WITH JESUS' REPLY: "AND THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE PREACHED IN ALL THE WORLD FOR A WITNESS UNTO ALL NATIONS; & THEN SHALL THE END COME." (Mt.24:14) Now when the Lord gave these other signs in reply to His disciples' question about the "sign of His Coming & of the End of the World," He said the End is not yet, these would only be the beginning of sorrows. But, He now says, when the Gospel is preached in all nations, then shall the End come!--And if there was ever a day in which every nation has heard the Gospel, it's today!
7. NEVER IN THE ENTIRE COURSE OF HISTORY HAS THE GOSPEL BEEN PREACHED IN ALL THE WORLD TO ALL NATIONS AS IT IS RIGHT NOW!--If not directly by missionaries, travellers & visitors, it is certainly being preached by the modern mediums of radio, television, printed literature, etc.! Every nation on the face of the Earth today has heard the Gospel! So if Jesus was right & the Bible is true, we are certainly now living in the time of the End!
8. THE MODERN MEANS OF COMMUNICATION & TRANSPORTATION THAT HAVE MADE THE FULFILMENT OF THE ABOVE PROPHECY EVIDENT today bring to mind another prediction regarding conditions in the Last Days, given to the Prophet Daniel in 534 B.C.: "In the time of the End, many shall run to & fro, & knowledge shall be increased." (Da.12:4)
9. "MANY SHALL RUN TO & FRO ...": People's means of travel--horse & buggy, wagons, camels, sail boats, etc.--hadn't changed for thousands of years, until just a little over 100 years ago! Until then, man still travelled in the same fashion that Adam travelled: He walked or rode an animal or something pulled by an animal. But in this very short period of time, mankind has advanced from a state little different from Adam's to one in which man not only drives at enormous speeds, but flies & even goes to the moon!
10. PEOPLE TRAVEL MORE TODAY THAN THEY EVER TRAVELLED BEFORE! International tourism is a huge multi-billion dollar business involving over 200 million people travelling outside their own countries every year throughout the World! Within the U.S. alone, over 300 million passengers were carried by domestic commercial airlines in 1979 & over 223,000,000,000 miles were logged by air travellers!
11. WHEN YOU REALISE THAT THERE ARE PEOPLE ALIVE TODAY WHO CAN REMEMBER THE DAYS WHEN THE COMMON MEANS OF TRAVEL WAS HORSEBACK or horsedrawn carriages, etc., you'll appreciate how amazingly this prediction about the Endtime has been fulfilled! Cars today can travel over 600 mph, planes over 2,000 mph & spaceships at 24,000 mph! A jet can fly around the World in 24 hours, a spacecraft can cover the World in 80 minutes, & in less than one second a radio message can reach the ends of the Earth!
12. 2,600 YEARS AGO ANOTHER PROPHET ACTUALLY FORESAW OUR MODERN HIGHWAYS & THEIR RACING, RAGING AUTOMOBILES!: "The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of His preparation"--before Jesus returns--"& the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings!" (Nahum 2:3,4)
13. NOW IMAGINE THE ANCIENT PROPHET SEEING A VISION OF FUTURE HIGHWAYS, today's super highways, with hundreds of cars speeding along with their headlights on at nighttime!--How would he describe it? He'd never seen or even imagined anything like it before! They must have looked like lightning to him! And they certainly jostle one another in the broad ways!--Thousands of people are killed every year from this jostling! In 1978 alone, 52,000 Americans lost their lives in highway accidents. Statistics show that more than 2 million Americans & Canadians have been killed in traffic accidents this century!
14. "AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED ...": Did you know that more has been discovered by science in the last 100 years than had been discovered or invented in the entire previous 6,000 years? Knowledge has been increased within the past hundred years of this Endtime almost beyond imagination!--To the point that machines have now become so complicated, only highly trained scientists & technicians can even understand them!--To where computers are now even taking over the thinking of man & are able to do feats of calculation & memory & computation & even thinking, far beyond the limits of man's own mind!
15. A FEW YEARS AGO IT WAS ESTIMATED THAT THE SUM TOTAL OF MAN'S KNOWLEDGE WAS DOUBLING EVERY TEN YEARS! But now experts estimate that it takes less than five years for man's store of knowledge to double! It is a known fact that more than 80% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive today! Medical knowledge is increasing so rapidly that an estimated 70% of the medicines in use today were developed after WW2. Dr. Malcolm Todd, one-time president of the American Medical Association, said that about half of medical knowledge is outdated every 10 years. It is estimated that over 15,000 scientific journals are being published annually & that, throughout the World, more than 1,000 new books are published every day!--Knowledge certainly has been increased!
16. BUT ALTHOUGH MODERN MAN HAS ALL THIS KNOWLEDGE & has made so many amazing scientific discoveries & technological breakthroughs, what good has it really done him?--While much of the World toils to try to scrape together enough to eat for its massive populations & to try to solve the pressing problems of World peace & pollution, extravagant misguided Western scientific genius is largely devoted to silly scientific toys, loony luxuries, idiotic idols & horrifying, wasteful weapons of war! And although they have the most "advanced" & expensive educational systems the World has ever known, they're turning out the most ignorant & violent children they've ever produced!
17. YES, "KNOWLEDGE" HAS "INCREASED"!--But without God & without His Word, things are so confusing, so complicated & so complex that by the time they complete their modern education, most people are more mixed-up than when they began! Unwittingly, they've fulfilled another prophecy about this last generation: "This know also, in the Last Days men shall be ever learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth!" (2Tim.3:1,7)--What a picture of today's universities & hallowed halls of so-called "higher learning"!
18. ANOTHER STRIKINGLY FULFILLED PROPHECY REGARDING THE TIME-PERIOD IMMEDIATELY BEFORE JESUS RETURNS IS: "The day of Christ's Second Coming shall not come, except there come a falling away first!" (2Th.2:3) In the original Greek this means a great apostasy, a cooling off, a "falling away" must happen before Jesus returns to take over the Earth. Has this happened today?--Are many cooling off & falling away from the church & from Christ & from God in indifference?--Yes!
19. THERE'S A GREAT FALLING AWAY TAKING PLACE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD TODAY BECAUSE OF UNBELIEF, loss of faith in God, loss of faith in His Creation & loss of faith in the Bible. Entire countries of former Christianity, so-called Christendom, have abandoned their faith for the false teaching of Evolution, for which there is no foundation in proven fact whatsoever, just pure theories, lies, fantasy & guesswork!
20. BY ABANDONING GOD, THE BIBLE & CHRISTIANITY & PUTTING NOTHING IN ITS PLACE EXCEPT THE ANIMALISTIC, CANNIBALISTIC RELIGION OF EVOLUTION, the result has been total anarchy & chaos! After all, if there is no Creator nor Creation, then life is just a meaningless, chaotic process of Evolution! If there's no God, then there's no Ruler. And if there's no Ruler, then there are no rules! And if there are no rules or laws, then nothing is either right or wrong! They say, "A monkey is your god & you might as well 'do your own thing' & do as you please!--Kill & rob or do whatever you want to do! It doesn't matter! Nothing's right! Nothing's wrong!"--And the result is total insanity, madness!
21. DO YOU KNOW WHICH AGE GROUP HAS HAD THE BIGGEST INCREASE IN CRIME INVOLVEMENT TODAY? Fifteen is now the age of the largest increase of arrests for all kinds of crimes, including major crimes. In 1979, over 1,607,000 15-year-olds & under were arrested in the U.S. alone, according to FBI & Department of Justice reports. When I was a young man, the age group of criminal involvement was in the 20's, 24 as I recall, now it's gone clear down to 15! Why?--Because in places like the U.S., they've taken God & the Bible & Jesus & religion out of the public schools!
22. SO THINGS ARE NOT GETTING BETTER & BETTER, AS EVOLUTION PURPORTS! In fact, the Bible predicts just the opposite!--"In the Last Days, evil men & seducers shall wax worse & worse, deceiving & being deceived!" (2Ti.3:1,13) In fact, Jesus Himself said that "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of Man comes again." (Mt.24:37) Well, how were things in the days of Noah?--The World was so bad that God was sorry He had even made it, sorry He had even made man. Think of it! "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth, & that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Earth also was corrupt before God, & the Earth was filled with violence." (Ge.6:5,11)
23. IS THE WORLD FULL OF VIOLENCE TODAY?--In the U.S., violent crime has risen by 1,600% in the past 20 years!--Costing an estimated $12,000,000,000 annually! The Surgeon General reports that "violence in all its forms, from murder to child-&-wife-beating, is now the nation's number 1 public health problem!"
24. EXPERTS HAVE CALCULATED THAT BY THE TIME THE AVERAGE AMERICAN CHILD IS 15 YEARS OLD, HE WILL HAVE PERSONALLY WITNESSED THE VIOLENT DESTRUCTION OF MORE THAN 13,000 HUMAN BEINGS ON TELEVISION!--And yet they wonder, "Where did we go wrong?" when their teenage darlings wind up in jail! In one week, the following acts were observed on television during children's viewing time: On the 185 programs viewed, there were 281 assaults, 117 killings, 19 robberies, 16 kidnappings, 10 murder conspiracies, 3 arsons, 3 extortions, 3 jail breaks, 1 lynching, 1 bombing & 1 suicide! On the average station there are 800 acts of violence per week!--It's hard to imagine that even "the days of Noah" were as violence-filled as those in which we are now living!
25. IN ANOTHER PROPHECY RELATED TO JESUS' "DAYS OF NOAH" PREDICTION REGARDING WORLD CONDITIONS & TRENDS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE HIS RETURN, Jesus said, "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire & brimstone from Heaven & destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." (Lk.17:28-30)
26. WELL, JUST LIKE THE ANCIENT WICKED CITIES OF SODOM & GOMORRAH, TODAY'S WORLD IS JUST FULL OF SODOMITES, "men with men working that which is unseemly" (Rom.1:27), & sodomy, or male-homosexuality, has swept across the civilised World! The laws of man are beginning to tolerate & even encourage it, while countless films, recordings & entertainers are openly flaunting & promoting it--which is another reason why God is going to step in soon!
27. "AND BECAUSE INIQUITY SHALL ABOUND, THE LOVE OF MANY SHALL WAX COLD!" (Mt.24:12) With today's totally selfish & self-indulgent "me generation," this prophecy by Jesus about the Endtime certainly is being fulfilled! Iniquity certainly is abounding & no one can deny that the love between so many people has grown so cold. "For in the last days men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, without natural affection, despisers of those that are good, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." (2Ti.3:1-5)
28. "AND THERE SHALL BE UPON THE EARTH DISTRESS OF NATIONS, WITH PERPLEXITY; THE SEA & THE WAVES ROARING." (Lk.21:25) The peoples of the Earth are often likened unto the sea & the waves in the Bible. So here He's actually speaking symbolically of the peoples & nations of the World--their wars & rebellions & riots & terrorism--the waves of their various wars & conflicts & uprisings. Every time you turn the news on the television, it roars! Every time you turn on the radio, you can hear the waves of a new war roaring, a new riot, a new rebellion, a new revolution, more terrorism, more strikes, more problems, chaos!
29. "AND MEN'S HEARTS FAILING THEM FOR FEAR, & FOR LOOKING AFTER THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE COMING ON THE EARTH." (Lk.21:26) Do you know what the greatest cause of death in the Western world is today?--Heart failure! The "World Almanac" tells us that in 1980, 566,000 Americans died from heart attacks, & approximately 1-1/2 million Americans have a heart attack every year! Over 37 million Americans suffer from hypertension, which is nearly 1 out of every 4 adults in the U.S., & more than 20 million have headaches severe enough to require medical help each year.
30. I CAN REMEMBER WHEN I WAS YOUNG, PEOPLE WERE NOT LIVING IN CONSTANT FEAR & TERROR AS THEY ARE TODAY!--They might have been living in poverty & destitution, but they didn't live in constant fear of getting murdered on the street or being annihilated by an atom bomb in a nuclear war! But ever since World War II & the U.S.' nuclear annihilation of over 100,000 innocent people in Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Japan, it seems like almost everybody abandoned their faith in God, lost their faith in peace & got scared stiff of blowing themselves to Hell, & still are!
31. ANOTHER PREDICTION REGARDING THE ENDTIME WHICH HAS FOUND OBVIOUS FULFILMENT HAS TO DO WITH THE TREMENDOUS & UNPRECEDENTED UPSURGE & INTEREST IN THE OCCULT, psychic phenomena, spiritism, demonology & witchcraft which the World is experiencing today: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the Latter Times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits & doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron." (1Ti.4:1,2)
32. IN THESE LAST DAYS, THE DEVIL'S REALLY ON THE JOB & HE'S VERY VERY BUSY. There are all kinds of weird religions which are attracting wide followings nowadays, particularly amongst the youth. In the absence of spiritual reality in the hypocritical, fake religions of their parents (even so-called Christians), many young people have, in their pursuit of genuine spirituality & real religion & the actual supernatural & miraculous, gone into ancient mysticism, drugs & the spirit world.
33. OF COURSE, IF PEOPLE HAVE REJECTED & REFUSED TO RECEIVE THE GOSPEL, THE TRUTH, GOD'S WORD SAYS THAT GOD HIMSELF WILL THEN SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION that they might believe a lie! (2Th.2:10-12) When people refuse the Truth, there is nothing left for them to believe but a lie, so they are then wide open for the liars & the false prophets. And now the youth from so-called Christian backgrounds are following many modern-day false prophets by the millions!--"For many false prophets shall rise, & shall deceive many!" (Mt.24:11)
34. BESIDES THESE COMMONLY RECOGNISED DEMONIC MEDIUMS, the Devil in recent years has raised his ugly head & literally roared his message loud & clear through another medium: Popular Music!--"Hard Rock", "Acid Rock", "Punk Rock", etc. have deceived youth particularly & misled them into the horrors of drugs & Hell! Much of the music is literally demonic, invoking demons & seducing people to yield to their influence! It puts many people in tune with Satan to where they get his messages & carry out his will, his diabolical design! Much of its jungle rhythms & screaming savages are the sounds of horror, the sounds of Hell, tortured souls with tortured minds producing tortured music that's literally driving this generation insane!
35. ANOTHER MAJOR SIGN OF THE VERY END PREDICTED IN THE BIBLE IS REGARDING THE RISE OF A GREAT ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT, LED BY A POWERFUL SUPER-HUMAN ANTICHRIST DICTATOR, which is going to arise in the very Last Days just before Christ returns to take over. Now everything the Bible has predicted about all the other various World empires down through History has always come true, so we know this last government of man will also come to pass. According to Scriptures, the Antichrist will reign for seven years: The first half will be a period of more-or-less general World peace as he consolidates his power & establishes his kingdom, but the second half will be 3-1/2 years of "Great Tribulation" such as the World has never known!
36. THE SCRIPTURES SHOW THAT HE WILL MAKE A 7-YEAR PACT OR COVENANT OF COMPROMISE & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WITH THE JEWS, ENABLING THEM TO REBUILD THEIR TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM. But exactly 3-1/2 years after he has confirmed this religious covenant, he will suddenly break the agreement & demand that everybody worship him as God!--Or be killed! At that point he places the "Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Place," which apparently is some kind of super-computer-idol-image erected in the rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem.
37. JESUS SAID THAT WHEN YOU SHALL SEE THIS ANTICHRIST'S IMAGE, THIS ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION, STANDING IN THE JEWISH TEMPLE, then will begin the last 3-1/2 years of man's rule on Earth, a time of "Great Tribulation"!--That's going to be the sign that you're only 3-1/2 years from the Coming of Jesus! "When ye therefore shall see the Abomination of Desolation, spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in the Holy Place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then shall be Great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the World to this time, no, nor ever shall be!" (Mt.24:15,21; Rev.13)
38. "IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE TRIBULATION OF THOSE DAYS SHALL THE SUN BE DARKENED, & THE MOON SHALL NOT GIVE HER LIGHT, & the stars shall fall from Heaven, & the powers of the Heavens shall be shaken." And now finally, the final sign of the very End: "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven: & then shall all the tribes of the Earth mourn, & they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven with power & great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, & they shall gather together His elect (His Church) from the four winds, from one end of Heaven to the other!" (Mt.24:29-31) Hallelujah!--The glorious Second Coming of Jesus Christ to resurrect & rapture His Own!
39. "WHEN THESE THINGS BEGIN TO COME TO PASS"--when you see these things happen, even when they begin to come to pass--"then look up, & lift up your heads!"--Don't be discouraged, don't look down! Look up!--"For your redemption draweth nigh!" (Lk.21:28) When all these bad things begin to happen, start looking up, because Jesus is coming soon! PTL! "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled!" (Mt.24:33,34)--This generation! Your generation will not pass away till all these things are fulfilled!
40. IN OTHER WORDS, THE CURTAIN HAS BEEN DRAWN ASIDE ON THE LAST SCENE OF EARTH'S GREAT DRAMA, & the act has begun & it cannot stop now! It is impossible! All of the signs are pointing to the End! It's all right there in the Bible! But if you don't believe us or the Bible, listen to what just a few of the World's many non-religious experts have to say, some of the highest-ranking members of this planet's managerial class, who have the weight of scientific data & statistics to back them up:
41. "I THINK HUMAN LIFE IS NOW THREATENED AS NEVER BEFORE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS PLANET! Not just by one peril, but by many perils that are all working together & coming to a head at the same time. And that time lies very close to the year 2,000. I am one of those scientists who find it hard to see how the human race is to bring itself much past the year 2,000."--Dr. George Wald, Nobel Prize-winning scientist, Harvard University.
42. "WE ARE ABOARD A TRAIN WHICH IS GATHERING SPEED, RACING DOWN A TRACK in which there is an unknown number of switches leading to unknown destinations. No single scientist is in the engine cab & there may be demons at the switch! Most of society is in the caboose--looking backward!"--Scientist member of the prestigious "Club of Rome" socio-economic group.
43. KURT WALDHEIM, while Secretary General of the U.N., said, "I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but I can only conclude from the information that is available to me as Secretary General that the members of the United Nations have perhaps 10 years left in which to subordinate their ancient quarrels & launch a global partnership to curb the arms race, to improve the human environment, & to supply the required momentum to World development efforts. The alternative is a situation beyond our capacity to control!"
44. --AND THE AMAZING THING ABOUT THESE & COUNTLESS OTHER PREDICTIONS OF WOE BY VARIOUS EXPERTS is that nearly all of them wind up at just about the same time the Lord showed us that things are going to come to an End! So needless to say, I am convinced that the real time of the End that His Word speaks of from cover to cover is these last few years in which we are now living! We are already living in the time of The End!
45. BUT MOST PEOPLE NEVER SEEM TO SENSE IMPENDING DOOM OR THINGS THAT ARE ABOUT TO HAPPEN UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE.--They remind me of what Jesus said to some: "Ye can discern the face of the sky, but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (Mt.16:3) Most people just go on business as usual, no matter what is happening!--Unwittingly, they themselves are a fulfilment of another Endtime prophecy: "There shall come in the Last Days scoffers, saying, Where is the promise of His Coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation." (2Pe.3:3,4)--In other words, "Everything's the same! There's no danger! Business as usual!"
46. AND JUST LIKE JESUS SAID ABOUT THE DAYS OF NOAH, "THEY BUILDED & THEY PLANTED & THEY MARRIED & WERE GIVEN IN MARRIAGE, & KNEW NOT UNTIL THE FLOOD CAME & SWEPT THEM ALL AWAY, SO SHALL ALSO THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN BE!" (Mt.24:37-39)--Most people today are just going on with business as usual! "Oh, they've been preaching this business about Jesus coming for centuries & He hasn't come yet!" Well, He is coming & He's coming very soon, & you'd better be prepared by having Him in your heart & believing in Him, or you're apt to be swept away by the awesome soon-coming events of the very End!
47. ARE YOU READY? Your only hope is Jesus & the only way out is up! He said, "I am the Way, the Truth, & the Life: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." (Jn.14:6) He loves you & will forgive you your sins & give you His love, His joy & His peace if you will just humble yourself & pray, asking Him into your heart! So receive Jesus today & prepare for His Coming by serving Him & telling others about His Love!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family